Trench Fighting: A 1917 French Army Manual for Hand-to-Hand Combat. Kindle Edition
Formerly published under the title Hand-to-Hand Combat, this 1917 manual has been revised and colorized for clarity’s sake. The Great War was entering its third bloody year, and even the proud and stubborn French command had to concede that old methods weren’t working. To be sure, in a hypothetical situation wherein two infantrymen were rushing at one another across an open battlefield, the soldier with the 20 inch “épée bayonet” fixed on the end of his 51.2 inch Lebel 1886 rifle would appear to have the clear advantage over the German adversary with his shorter Mauser with Seitengewehr bayonet – the Frenchman would simply be able issue his fatal thrust sooner, and so prevail. But there were no such ideal encounters, as men could not engage in bayonet sparring while stumbling through muck and being raked by machine gun fire – not to mention that the enemy had little reason to abandon the safety of his position to engage in hand-to-hand.